Group Blog talking about the NBA 2009 Eastern Conference Champions. Due to the amazing success of the 2009 playoff run comments are now frequently deleted to kill offensive comments, incoherence, or asininity. Comments can no longer be anonymous and require either a Blogger or OpenID account.

Saturday, March 22, 2008

Johnson leads Hawks to win over Magic

Tied at 83 with just under 5 mins remaining in the game, this one looked like it was going down to the wire, but ATL (30-39) scored 15 of the game's final 22 pts to beat the Magic (46-26, 23-13 away) 98-90. The Magic had a 4 pt lead entering the fourth, but made just 3 of 12 3 pt FGs in that final qtr.

ATL's Joe Johnson had his usual outstanding game against the Magic, scoring 34 pts (24 pts in the second half), along with 7 asts, 5 rebs, and 2 steals. Three other Hawks scored in double figures, with Mike Bibby scoring 20 pts along with 8 asts, 6 rebs, 2 steals.

Magic lose their sixth game in a row in ATL, and this was their first loss to a sub-.500 team since FEB 27th at PHI. ATL is now 1 1/2 games ahead of NJ for the last playoff spot in the East, and the Magic are 5 games ahead of CLE for the third seed pending the outcome of the CLE/MIL game. Magic have two days off before hosting the World Champion Spurs TUE night.

4 Comments:

I’m disappointment with SVG decision to keep Carlos Arroyo out the Backcourt rotation. I was looking Arroyo stats in every game that he has played more than 24 min. 11.3 points per game, 5.4 assist per game, 5.4 assist per game, and only 1.3 TO per game. He‘s record is 13 / 5 in those games. He also has a winning record as a starter. Try to compare his stats with the other two PG. In addition of that we lost two games against future contenders Was and the Hawks. SVG is trying to give more min to Adonal Foyle, I think he is get it now due to if the big H get in foul trouble, Adonal probably be the answer????? Well, we still don’t have a legit PF in the team to help Howard and every contender has one. I’m saying we still pretenders.

"I don't necessarily think it was just them. I think it was us. We didn't play as well as we needed to play. We didn't come out with a lot of energy. We didn't play as focused as we normally play. They came out hard and aggressive."

Howard was also asked if fatigue on the Magic's part played a factor.

"Oh, man, I think it was," Howard said. "I think it was."

From Coach Van Gundy: "So what? We lost. I'm not patting them on the back for losing... to a sub-.500 team."

The Hawks did what they had to do in the fourth qtr to win the game, as they know a playoff spot is on the line. I believe ATL missed only one FT in that final qtr, and made all the big plays in the final minutes.

They play the Magic tougher than any other team in the SE (they lead the season series 2-1), and match up really well with the Magic. They have athletic, talented players and a pretty decent home record. Any team that can hold DHoward to 5 FG attempts in 37 mins knows what they're doing defensively, and the Magic couldn't make them pay because their outside shots weren't falling, and the FT shooting was mediocre, mostly because of Howard's 5 of 11 FT shooting.

Howard needs to put up more than 5 FG attempts in 37 minutes; I don't care how good the opposing defense might be on him.

The Magic starting backcourt was outscored 54-30. Turkoglu and Lewis combined for just 32 pts on 13 of 33 FGs, and Turk didn't have his usual all-around good game, as he had just 2 rebs and 3 asts.

Give credit to the Hawks; they deserved to win the game. It's like every game is a playoff game for them, and they have to play with a sense of desperation every game.

This was the Magic's 9th game in 15 nights, so there definitely was a fatigue factor. They obviously don't have the sense of desperation (being 5 1/2 games ahead of CLE for the third seed) that teams like ATL have, and combined with their heavy schedule, losses like this will happen, so I'm not going to be too upset over this loss. Look at CLE, they lost at MIL SAT night, and MIL had just lost a home game to the pitiful Heat last week.

The Magic will be getting some much-needed rest the remainder of March, with only two games scheduled the final nine days of the month, so hopefully bad offensive performances like what happened against the Hawks and Wizards won't happen anymore.

"Anonymous", I understand what you're saying about Arroyo, and I don't think it's fair that Arroyo is out of the PG rotation either, but it is what it is. Depending on matchups with the other team, I think that SVG will play him more minutes in certain games than Dooling, but if SVG feels he needs Dooling's defense more than Arroyo's playmaking, then Dooling will get the nod. Dooling has been a big spark off the bench in many games, while Arroyo has done well when called upon. It's not an easy situation for Arroyo, but at least he's being professional about it.

I'm not really upset about the loss either,the third seed has basically been wrapped up for us. At this point we just need to keep winning at home and if you lose the occasional road game no big deal,we'll be starting at home once the play-offs begin so as long as we're playing well there we should be ok. Also carlos and JJ need to realize that they are playing on a very good,deep team. How many other teams have 3 starting caliber point guards? And 3 guys who can play the shooting guard (if you add keyon to that group). So just like mike said, match-ups usually dictate who plays in arroyo's case,and in JJ's case rebounding from the shooting guard position is why "mo-gans" both get the nod before him.

“Big Figure” I quite in disagreement with the statement about we are a deep team. We have 3 SG team, only 2 are playing right now. We have 3 PG and only two in the rotation and two star Small Forwards. Nelson , Carlos and Dooling Garrity, Bogans Foyle and JJ were available for the trading dead line. Those 4 players are eating 10m dollars in salary cap. I agree with Otis to keep all 3 PG just in case someone gets hurt. My point is that Otis mismanages our team. He should come out with a trade to make us more competitive. Kurt Thomas is much better than Foyle. No mention that Artest and Bibby were also in the trading block. Atlanta got much better by getting Bibby. I will be honest I would gave out Nelson Bogans, Foyle and JJ and maybe a first or second round pick for those two Players. We had the players to make the trades. This is just an example due to there were more player at there to make us better.